My wife Merle and I spent the day at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, one of our musical highlights of the year. Each year we and 18,000 other music fans are privileged to hear some of the best musicians in the world at seven small stages and one large stage at Gallagher Hill in Edmonton.
The sessions ('workshops') at the smaller stage usually feature three or four musicians. Each session is given a theme. Today we listened to sessions with themes including 'A Sense of Wonder', 'Promised Land' and 'In the Tradition.' The musicians take turns singing songs which fit the theme. When Steve Earle was here several years ago he told us 'In Nashville, we call this a guitar pull.'
Often the other musicians join in and the results can be surprising and wonderful, especially when they are from different countries and traditions.
Today we enjoyed hearing Tagag, an Inuit throat singer (backed by Celina Kalluk) sing with Black Umfolosi from Zimbabwe. The cultures and the music connected, and the crowd cheered.
I'm a great fan of Guy Clark and Connie Kaldor and was very pleased that they were featured, with Martin Sexton and Greg Keelor, in a ninety minute session.
Verlon Thompson provided back-up vocals and fine guitar work for Guy Clark. Guy passed on one of his turns, asking Verlon to sing. His song, 'Joe Walker's Mare', was one of the highlights of the day for me.
Other highlights included Buffy Sainte-Marie and the great Stephen Fearing.
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